


The Remembrance of Things Past

by dralexreid



Series: Dr Piper Bishop [55]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Mutilation, Torture, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28303500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dralexreid/pseuds/dralexreid
Summary: When several women in Virginia are found murdered, Rossi reopens an unsolved cold case that has haunted him for a quarter of a century because he believes the original killer who is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease might have returned.
Relationships: Dr Spencer Reid/Dr Piper Bishop
Series: Dr Piper Bishop [55]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972852
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

Penelope’s heels were the second most distinct noise in the Behavioural Analysis Unit. The first was the sound of laughter, usually elicited from someone’s successful prank, usually either Derek’s or Spencer’s. But with a family member down for the count, it was hard to find something to laugh about. The bullpen had grown quieter with JJ’s absence, Rossi’s vacation, Piper’s flu and Derek’s relocation to a cabin. Her heels clicked rapidly until they slowed down as Penelope gazed at the empty office. JJ’s absence had shaken her, more than Elle and Gideon. They’d both worked together for 7 years, and JJ had been the sister Penelope had never had. Her hand rose to slide the name tag from the door, and she gazed at it melancholically.

Meanwhile, Spencer was arguing with Piper on whether it was too early for her to be at work. Her fever had gone down yesterday, replaced by coughing fits that had torn her throat raw. She could barely speak, yet her only defence was that she didn’t need her voice to analyse behaviour. Derek was more than willing to physically drag the woman to her apartment, but he still had no idea how many knives Piper had on her body at any moment. Emily was partly to blame for that. Piper’s abduction and torture had shaken Emily more than the woman cared to admit and she’d taken it upon herself to keep Piper armed. Clearly making Piper a danger to society was worth it.

Behind drawn curtains, Hotch dialled his old friend’s number, dreading bringing the Italian back from his vacation. David Rossi’s grumbling voice filtered through the receiver.

_“I hope you want me to come in. I mean, between writer's block and my neighbour's construction, I'm going crazy here. What's going on there?”_

“I just got a call. The bodies of two young women were found in the Elden street area in Bristol, Virginia. They were both tortured and electrocuted.”

_“Did they make any phone calls?”_

“Yes. But without the signature.”

 _“I'll be there in 20 minutes,”_ David promised. Aaron settled the receiver down before picking up his file. He swung the door open, calling Bishop, Prentiss and Reid to the conference room. Emily led the trio inside to find Derek already seated.

“Is that Ellie again?” Emily asked and Piper sneezed into her elbow before taking a seat between Emily and Spencer.

“She’s been texting me every morning on her way to school.” Piper saw a flash of the Derek Morgan she’d met for the first time. His slow smile, his tender gaze, his soft-spoken words.

“How’s she doing?” Spencer asked.

“Well, she's already got herself a BFF named Jill, and she thinks she wants to play soccer,” Derek replied with an easy chuckle as he slipped his cell into his pocket.

“She's adjusting. That's good,” Emily remarked.

“I reckon you should just adopt her at this point,” Piper laughed, her voice a little hoarse. Spencer looked horrified at the thought while Derek seemed to genuinely turn over the idea. They turned to look at the door as Hotch filed in with a pile of documents.

“Bristol, Virginia,” he launched as he handed out everyone’s cases. “The body of 25-year-old Jenny Delilly was found yesterday. She had been tortured, sodomized, and electrocuted before being forced to make a goodbye call to her parents.” Hotch moved to the screen, taking JJ’s usual spot as the pictures of another young woman flashed on the screen. “Her body was then dumped off Elden Street. A week ago, the body of Kara Kirkland was found in the same area having suffered identical injuries.”

“This reminds me of the Butcher case,” Derek pointed out, glancing at the injuries.

“Why does that name sound familiar to me?” Emily asked.

“The Butcher was a sexual sadist that killed 20 women in the same area of Virginia from 1984 to 1993 and then vanished. He tortured blond women in their 20s that lived in or near Bristol.”

“That was one of Rossi's old cases, isn't it?” Piper asked, clearing her throat.

“Yes,” Hotch replied sternly and the sound of Italian leather soles smacking against linoleum panels turned the profilers around to see the legend himself walk through the doors with a large box.

“Some vacation,” Emily scoffed. “Did you get any sun?”

“I never got any anything,” he sighed.

“You think the Butcher’s back?” Piper asked, looking up at the man.

“I doubt it. We profiled him to be a white male in his late 40s back then. He’d be in his 70s now.”

“Didn’t you almost catch him?” Derek asked.

“In the spring of '93, we narrowed the geographical profile. We alerted every blonde in their mid-20s in Bristol and the surrounding counties. The pressure got so intense that the killings just stopped.”

“Well, the Copelands killed into their 70s,” Spencer pointed out. “This could be him coming back.”

“It's probably a copycat,” Hotch dismissed. “If he's emulating the butcher, he could just be getting started.”

Together, the team went through the old profile before theorising about the new one. The wounds weren’t caused by stabbing, Piper deduced. They were far too superficial for that. And, while Kara was left practically naked, Jenny Delilly wasn’t. Emily realised that might have meant that Kara might have struggled against their unsub. Derek pointed out that the wounds were all in mostly the same places, the lower abdomen and above the breast. These were slow, deliberate cuts and all that was left was to listen to each voicemail.

In the jet, Aaron moved from his end of the jet to the four younger profilers in the middle. “Let’s go over victimology,” he started.

“Both Jenny Delilly and Kara Kirkman were single professional women. Jenny had just gotten a job as a web designer, and Kara worked for a non-profit,” Spencer summed up from his file while Derek flicked though his own.

“Each woman was taken from a populated area with no witnesses,” Emily added. “Jenny from a crowded drugstore parking lot, Kara from the back patio of a ground-floor apartment when her roommate went inside to answer the phone.”

“He had to have been familiar with the abduction site,” Piper rationalised. “He’s definitely familiar with the area but also inconspicuous enough to leave with a woman and not have any questions. Excuse me,” she managed to get out before sneezing violently into a handkerchief.

“And why not take the roommate?” Derek asked them, ignoring Piper’s violent display of sickness.

“Roommate’s a brunette. He prefers blondes,” Rossi supplied, his Butcher box in front of him.

“These vics were forced to make phone calls,” Emily continued. “Jenny left a message, and Kara spoke with her fiancé.”

“Garcia couldn’t trace the calls, they were made on disposable cells,” Piper reported. “We do have a timeline, though.” She gestured at Derek to continue.

“According to the medical examiner's report, both victims were dead for about 3 hours before they were found,” he added. “Which means based upon the times of their messages, they endured 5 additional hours of torture after making their goodbye calls.”

“It wasn't enough that he caused his victims pain and suffering, it extended to their parents as well?” Spencer’s face warped into disgust as he spoke, unconsciously adjusting his scarf.

“Rossi, were the phone calls the butcher made his victims leave similar?” Emily prodded.

“Yeah, but the content varied. 13 vics left answering machine messages for loved ones, 5 actually talked to someone before they died, and two reached no one.”

“Em, you said the Butcher make his victims end their messages by saying they were enjoying it?” Piper asked thoughtfully.

“That was the signature,” she confirmed.

“Wouldn't that make a sadist flaccid?” Derek asked, following Piper’s train of thought.

“It wasn't about him,” David said. “It was about the parents. He wanted to make sure that they knew he had complete control and dominance over their daughters.”

“Maybe that’s the sticking point,” Piper thought aloud. “Our copycat might not know about the signature.” Rossi shook his head.

“Everybody knew the details of this case,” he countered. “The paper even printed part of the answering machine messages.”

“We’ll figure out the rest when we land,” Hotch decided. “For now, Morgan, Prentiss, go to the ME. Bishop, Reid, go over the messages. Rossi and I will interview the families.” Piper nodded, going back to her file while Derek looked across his seat to Rossi.

“Hey, what’s in the box?”

“Evil,” he said sincerely, glancing at the cardboard box as Piper’s snorted derisively in her seat.

“You’d think evil would take up more space,” she joked under her breath and Emily struggled to hold back a smile.

“It should at least weigh down on your soul a little,” Emily murmured back, and Piper masked her laugh with a long sip of her cup of tea. Rossi just shook his head in fake disappointment, masking his own smile as he looked down at his file.


	2. Chapter 2

Derek and Emily stood side by side in front of the two pale bodies, not as bloody as the pictures. The ME stood in front of them, passing a clipboard over with the medical charts.

“You can tell from the burn wounds that they were assaulted with an electrified object.”

“Curling iron? Poker?” Derek suggested.

“Inconclusive,” the examiner sighed. “They also have numerous lacerations on their bodies. Slight ones near the throat, deep ones on the chest.”

“Multiple knives,” Emily recalled.

“The guy was creative,” the medical officer asserted.

“Creatively sick,” Emily scoffed. “What about the contusions on the backs of their heads?”

“They were most likely sustained during the abduction,” the examiner assured them.

“This is a different approach than the Butcher's abductions,” Derek noted. “Based on Rossi's profile, the Butcher was a smooth-talker who lured his victims without initial physical force.

“Yeah, clearly this unsub doesn't have the same confidence or finesse. He's sloppy,” Emily said before thanking the young examiner and together, the duo left for the precinct.

Meanwhile, David asked for a room with a large whiteboard, a window and 6 chairs. The detective was quick to assure them that this couldn’t be the Butcher’s work and with none of the original detectives still on the case, Hotch seemed to heed the detective’s advice. Piper started transcribing the voices neatly, claiming that Spencer’s handwriting would be illegible. Psycholinguistics wasn’t exactly her forte, but they managed well enough, breaking down both messages while Dave talked to Kara’s fiancé and Hotch took Jenny’s parents. Rossi sat the man, Michael, down in front of the agents.

“I kept asking her what was wrong,” Michael confessed. “But... She just made me listen.

“Did your fiancée say anything that sounded out of the ordinary?” Rossi asked him gently.

“No,” Michael answered sadly. “She sounded like herself, considering the circumstances.”

“You say that her lexical features are consistent with her vernacular?” Spencer asked softly. Michael simply looked between the three agents.

“Did it sound like something she would say?” Rossi amended.

“Yeah, that's what she said. Except…” Michael trailed off, staring at the script pinned to the board with a magnet. “I never--we never told her to not be afraid,” he admitted. “Why would she say that?”

“We think the man we’re looking for may have forced your fiancée to read out a script,” David revealed. “At the end of the conversation, did Kara sat that she enjoyed it?” David’s voice was clear as he asked Michael about the signature and Michael’s face morphed into a mask of horror

“N-No, she didn’t say she enjoy—” He closed his eyes exhaling. “I need some air,” he said before pushing himself off the chair and sidling past Hotch as the boss entered their room.

“Everything okay?”

“Peachy,” Rossi scoffed.

“We asked him about the signature,” Spencer explained.

“Bishop, what do you have?” Piper looked up from her workspace to glance at Hotch. She sighed, pulling her earphones out.

“I have listened to every tape of this guy and when I say he’s sick, I mean it,” she said. She raised a hand to run it through her hair before remembering it was knotted into a braid. “He doesn't even sound human.”

“Piper,” Hotch said, gently reminding her they were on a schedule.

“Right, sorry. So, I went through them all, I’ve got them transcribed here—” she jabbed at the handwritten papers on the desk “—and Jenny Delilly's message didn't match any old victims' messages until we get to Susan Cole, the Butcher's last kill.” Spencer leaned on the desk to get a better look at the messages. “Their messages were identical, minus the line about enjoying it, the butcher's signature. That was 1993. That’s when I went through Pandora’s box here and found this.” She pulled out photographs of Susan Cole’s body. “The victimology and MO look the same.”

“Did you transfer all the files yourself?” Spencer asked, looking over his shoulder at Rossi.

“17 years ago, he sounded like background noise, but when I digitized them, you could hear every word,” David admitted as Reid perched himself on an empty spot on the table.

“Yeah, well,” Piper snorted. “This guy is like the epitome of creepiness. I mean, I thought the guy from the Bates Motel was scary but I’m gonna have nightmares about his voice.”

“I never caught the Butcher, but I caught his voice,” the older profiler admitted. “I'd go to bed hearing him, wake up hearing him.”

“It would be like hearing a message from Jack the Ripper. Why haven't you ever written about him?” Spencer asked curiously.

“He had too much power. I need to find him first.

She looked over Spencer’s hunched frame to see Emily and Derek march into the precinct and instinctively felt a warmth spread over her body. Hotch followed her gaze to see the same.

“What did you find?”

“Was it Colonel Mustard in the patio with the knife?” Piper asked mockingly and Hotch rolled his eyes at her. Spencer sighed, staring at the floor.

“Close,” Derek said humourlessly. “Multiple wounds from two separate knives on each victim.”

“There's no way Jenny Delilly was abducted by one person,” Emily added.

“When you look at Kara's patio and the fact that the roommate went inside for two seconds,” Derek said. “It's highly unlikely.”

“We're looking for a team.”


	3. Chapter 3

Another woman had died. Heather Langley. The whole scene seemed like a Baroque painting, Spencer noted. The woman draped across the dead leaves and dirt. CSU surrounding the scene with cameras. Emily leaning over the body, a camera held in her gloved hands. Derek standing behind her like Michelangelo’s David with sunglasses. Hotch was on the phone with Penelope, asking for a background check on Heather. The detective with his notepad, scribbling down details of the body. Piper leaning against the naked tree, trying not to look at the body any more than was needed, focusing on Susan Cole’s file instead. Rossi pacing the scene behind her. A sea of reporters that JJ would usually be handling waiting behind the yellow tape. The reverie was broken by Piper calling out for the team.

“This is exactly like Susan’s murder. Same disposal site. Same posing of the victim.”

“Arms above her head, demeaning straddle,” Derek noted. “Exactly the same stab wounds.”

“The wounds are strategically placed so they miss the major arteries but inflict maximum pain,” Piper continued.

“These unsubs aren't just trying to copy the Butcher, they're trying to exactly re-enact his last kill,” Spencer realised.

“But copycats usually start from the beginning,” Emily countered. “Why are they fixated on the last crime?”

“The first murders were in ’84. It’s possible he doesn’t know the intricacies of the first murder,” Piper reasoned.

“Or something about this particular case is significant to them?” Spencer asked. Hotch told Morgan and Prentiss to contact the parents and the duo left with the detective as Hotch dismissed Bishop and Reid to ready their profile. Nodding, the couple started to walk away, bumping into each other as they made their way to the car until they were close enough to lock pinkies. Aaron held back a smirk as he turned around, ready to head back to his car.

“Aaron,” Rossi called out. “The Butcher is somehow involved in this,” he said, holding up his file. “The nuances are just too similar. The park, the hand position, the body. I think we should wait on the profile,” he proposed.”

“But there are aspects of the butcher's signature that are not present here, Dave,” Hotch countered. “And there are things that this unsub is doing the Butcher never did. You profiled him as a narcissist who worked alone. He would never partner up.”

“I just have a gut feeling that it's him.”

“Do you want to hold back the profile based on a feeling?” Hotch countered and Dave gazed at him helplessly. Receiving his answer, Aaron turned around, heading over to his SUV.

The feeling of delivering a profile was always the same. The same nervousness flitted through Piper’s system, but Aaron and David’s confidence always seemed to help bolster her own. “These unsubs, or unknown subjects, are considerably organized,” Aaron started.

“They most likely have some sort of secondary location they use to torture the victims,” Spencer continued, gesturing with his hands fluidly as he spoke.

“Their skill level is evidenced by the high-risk public nature of their abductions,” Derek added.

“They're able to lure their intended victims with some kind of a ruse. They then blitz them with overwhelming force…” Emily’s voice faded in Rossi’s mind as the recording of Susan Cole’s voicemail played over and over in his head.

“The unsubs are completely inconspicuous,” Piper finished. “They’re the last people you’d suspect of kidnapping and torturing women.” A voice piped up from the front to ask David a question.

“Agent Rossi, do you think the Butcher has come out of hiding?” But the question fell on deaf ears as Dave continued to stare at the carpeting. Hotch took the question for the profiler.

“We think that this is the work of two of his fans and that they're going to strike again,” the chief supplied, and Piper’s forehead wrinkled as she glanced at Rossi. She turned to Spencer, a question in her eyes, but he simply shrugged. She watched as the older man finally straightened, glancing over at the man who’d just asked the question. He was being distant, alone in his swirling thoughts as he tried to make sense of his instincts that were tugging him towards the Butcher, so much so that he found himself leaning against the brick wall outside an exit of the police station until Hotch joined him in his solitude. “Dave. I know you’re not convinced of the profile.”

“The Butcher is a part of this,” Rossi asserted again. “Bundy stopped using his broken arm ruse. Dahmer didn't eat all of his victims. Sometimes the psychopathology changes for these guys.”

“I know. I still think it's a copycat.”

“I'm not so sure.”

“Then if you feel this strongly, you should continue to explore the butcher as a suspect, and the rest of the team will investigate the possibility of the relationship between the two copycats.”

“Thanks.” Rossi made to move back inside.

“Dave,” he called out. “Take one of them with you. And I want to be updated.” Rossi mulled it over before nodding and making his way back inside. Officers cleared his path to the room where Derek and Piper tossed the profile between them, trying to predict the next location while Emily and Spencer attempted to predict the relationship.

“They pick high-risk targets for the thrill of it,” Derek proposed.

“But they’re not completely impractical about it," Piper countered. "They probably stalk each location.”

“Have we tried supermarkets? Or parks?”

“Unless they don’t stalk the location but the victim,” Piper debated as Rossi walked into the room. “If we can find one location all three victims were in, maybe we could—”

“Bishop!” Rossi called out and the psychologist whirled around.

“What’s up Mom?” She beamed at him, clearly feeding off of Penelope’s energy.

“I need you to work an angle with me.” Piper frowned, turning to Derek with a raised eyebrow. The latter just shrugged, relinquishing her.

“I’ve got this. Go.” Piper shot finger guns at him before following Rossi to an interrogation room. But she was still confused as David started emptying out the files from his box.

“Hold on. I thought we were—”

“I think the profile’s wrong,” he interrupted. “I think the Butcher’s involved in this.” Piper tapped her foot, absorbing the seasoned profiler.

“Okay.” She started helping Rossi lay each file out.

“Okay? I just told you I think a prolific serial killer in his 70s might be abducting these women…and you’re okay.” Piper glanced up at him, only to say three words. Three words she hadn’t even said to her own father.

“I trust you.” Then she said four words that made Rossi break into a smile. “Where do we start?”

“At the beginning.”


	4. Chapter 4

Emily continued listing partnerships on the board while Spencer narrowed down the geographic profile. Derek worked with Hotch to coordinate patrols while Garcia kept a weather eye out for a large vehicle. In an inner room, Rossi bounced ideas off Piper who read through each of the cases.

“The only kind of partnership the unsub would be okay in is whichever he’d be the most dominant in. He’s a sexual sadist, he takes the thrill in each kill, but he probably enjoys degrading the submissive.” Rossi kept pacing as he spoke. “It’d have to be a toxic relationship.”

“One that binds the submissive to him,” Piper murmured, reading through the rest of Susan Cole’s file. “He needs unwavering loyalty.”

“What if he created his partner and groomed him?” David stopped pacing, looking at the hunched over agent. “He would be in complete control and have his trust.”

“Like a mentor?”

“Like a father,” he corrected her, and Bishop absorbed Rossi’s proposition.

“I think we need to focus on what’s missing,” Piper finally proposed, looking up from her file. “We’re clinging to the behaviour we already have, but we haven’t accounted for the change.” Rossi raised an eyebrow pointedly and Piper tried to change tack. “Okay, um, let me put it this way. Psychology is too complex a subject to look at the bigger picture. Which is why we focus on the basics and then branch out.”

“Like psych 101 and then abnormal behaviour then clinical research,” Rossi followed along. “What does this have to—”

“I’m getting there.” Piper shifted to face him better. “The only way to understand the intricacies of human behaviour is through understanding the relationship between stimuli and reactions. I punch you, you get angry, right?” Rossi nodded. “And then you branch out into genetic factors of testosterone and environmental factors like abuse and so on and so forth.”

“I still don’t see what you’re getting at.”

“He has an established pattern. He sees a woman like Susan, he snaps. He has to break her,” Piper explained. “But then he’s forced to stop. There’s too much pressure.”

“It forces him to change his behaviour.”

“Right. Now, if he’s in his 70s, that means he’s too weak to do this on his own.”

“Which is why he has a partner.” Piper nodded. “But that doesn’t explain why he hasn’t done his signature.” Piper exhaled deeply.

“We need to account for the behavioural change and maybe that way, we’ll find him.” David nodded, flitting over to the window.

“The first victim,” he remembered. “Sylvia Marks, she didn’t leave a voicemail.” Piper rummaged through the organised chaos.

“No call made. She was burned. Wasn’t stabbed like the others.”

“So, we chalk that up to a developing MO. What then?” Piper grabbed the laptop, scrolling through the recording.

“You said there were how many victims?”

“20 before Kara, why?”

“There are only 13 recordings and 5 documented conversations.”

“I just assumed those victims couldn't reach anyone. Find their files. I’ll update the others.” Piper nodded, starting to skim through each file as Rossi updated the others until the detective interrupted their congregation.

“I just got a call from Heather Langley's father,” he updated them. “Turns out he did get a message.”

“He said he'd checked his phone,” Hotch countered, narrowing his eyes at the detective.

“No one thought to check Mr. Langley's job,” he amended. “His secretary pulled the voicemail. She can play it for us.”

“Let's hear it,” Hotch said, gesturing to the landline. The detective dialled a number and asked the secretary to play the message for them.

_“Mom, Dad, this is Heather. When you get this message, I'll probably be dead. Tomorrow you're going to find me, and when you do, please know that I... I enjoyed it.”_

“I enjoyed it,” Rossi repeated. “That’s the signature. It’s the Butcher. He’s back.” The rest of the team sat there, slightly in shock until Piper burst through the door like a hurricane.

“I’ve got it. The other victim. The one that didn’t leave a voicemail. Karen Bachner. She was the eighth victim.”

“Why did he stop at Karen?” Hotch asked.

“Because she only had one loved one,” Piper said excitedly. “Her parents died in a car accident when she was 19 but I double checked Rossi’s notes. She was married.”

“Yeah, Lee Mullens,” Rossi recalled. “But he didn't receive a call. When I interviewed him at the station, he said he didn't have an answering machine.”

“Do they have a child?” Derek asked.

“They had a son,” Piper said, handing Rossi his notepad. “You wrote it down. Colby Bachner.”

“Get Garcia,” Hotch directed and Derek leaned over, punching in her direct number into the machine.

“ _Ah, I was beginning to wonder when you’d remember me.”_

“You are unforgettable, sweetheart,” Derek smirked. “I need you to run a name for me. Colby Bachner.”

“ _Oh, that’s specific. Very out of character for you guys. Okay, got him. Parents are Karen Bachner and Lee Mullens. Karen had Colby two years before her marriage.”_

“They still in the area?” Emily prodded.

“ _Yessir, 1844 Shadow Wood lane, which is 6 miles from where the victims were dumped.”_

“So maybe Karen Bachner never made a call because the most important person in her life was already in the room with her— her son,” Spencer reasoned.

“Oh, hells, no. They're licensed electricians.”

“That’s not good,” Piper sighed.

“Let’s go,” Hotch directed and Derek shot up, squeezing Piper’s shoulders in celebration before sprinting out to the SUVs. Emily followed, refusing to run in her heels. Piper tagged along with Rossi while Spencer stayed at Hotch’s side. 3 SUVs pulled up to the house accompanied by two police cars. Rossi, Hotch and Morgan surged ahead while Bishop, Prentiss and Reid started to edge around the property to the back of the house. The three men split up, searching the house room by room until 6 agents surrounded a single staircase. A wizened man made his way down the steps in nothing but an undershirt and boxers, a photograph clasped in his right hand.

“FBI. Don't move,” Hotch said.

“Put your hands in the air,” Rossi shouted.

“What are you doing here?” Lee protested.

“Sir move slowly down the stairs,” Hotch said firmly.

“Why are you here? My son isn't here,” the man said coolly.

“You're under arrest for the murders of Chloe Moore, Reilly Gold, and Sylvia Marks,” Rossi yelled as Piper and Spencer moved to start searching the house.

“I don't know them,” Lee protested. “Please, I need to call someone.”

“You can call from the station.”

“Rossi, wait,” Emily exhorted.

“I’m done waiting,” David yelled when Hotch’s cool voice interrupted him, leading his gaze to fall on the photograph. The photograph of a woman who was not dead yet.


	5. Chapter 5

Lee Mullens sat on his flowery sofa, handcuffed as the doctors raided the kitchen and upper floors while Derek and Emily checked the lower floors before reconvening in the doorway of the living room. There was no torture chamber, no sign of the son except for a note saying he’d come back with a prize. There was nothing but a fresh grave lain outside. Hotch got Garcia to check any other properties under either Lee Mullen’s or Colby Bachner’s names and instructed Morgan to get the police cars out of the neighbourhood in case the son came back before meeting Spencer and Piper in the kitchen. She was sitting atop a counter holding a pill bottle next to a computer while Spencer’s head was hidden by a refrigerator. Piper cleared her throat as their chief entered the room.

“Everything in the house is labelled— drawers, the refrigerator,” Spencer reported, pulling his head out of the fridge. “I found Donepezil and flashcards in the medicine cabinet.” Piper waved the pill bottle in her hand.

“Donepezil?” Rossi asked. “Alzheimer's?” Piper nodded, eager to step into her role as a clinical psychologist.

“It's a cholinesterase inhibitor. It improves acetylcholine, either by increasing levels in the brain or enhancing nerve cells' response to it.”

“So, this guy gets to forgot while the family has to live with this forever,” Rossi scoffed.

“Alzheimer's affects short-term memory before it affects long-term which explains the scripted phone calls and the dump sites.”

“It also explains why he started up again,” Spencer added. “He's repeating his last kill because he can't remember it.”

“He killed over a ten-year period,” Hotch noted. “He probably remembers his earliest kills.”

“There’s this too,” Piper added, tossing a hard drive at Rossi. “I found it in the living room. They’re slides of all the past abduction sites.” Rossi sighed deeply.

“You want me to go in with you?” Hotch asked.

“No, I’ve got this.” The agents watched Rossi disappear into a doorway. Hotch closed the doors behind him and Emily sent a picture of their next victim to Garcia to start identifying.

“So...” Dave started, pulling up a chair. “How did you get your son to do all this? Did you get him to help you to kill your wife?”

“Karen left us,” Lee spat out.

“No, that's what you convinced him. But you killed her when she figured you out. You took her to a chamber,” Rossi countered, showing him pictures of the other victims. “The same place you took Heather Langley, Kara Kirkland, Sylvia Marks.”

“Sylvia's a pretty name,” Lee said, never making direct eye contact.

“She graduated from Georgetown,” Rossi said, flipping open her file. “She wanted to be a chemist. But you burned her so bad, her family couldn't recognize her. How did you do that? Did you use a fire poker or a curling iron? Something you made. Something you bought.”

“When she saw the Lexwell, her eyes went so wide, she scared me half to death.” Rossi looked at Hotch from the corner of his eye and Piper spoke up.

“Wait, I’ve heard that before,” she said slowly. “Um, it’s a company. They used to manufacture ECT machines. It got shut down in the early 2000s but some hospitals may still be using it.”

“Unknown object penetrating our victims,” Emily realised, and Derek started dialling Garcia’s number.

“ _What’s up, buttercups?”_

“Baby girl, I need you to cross check mental hospitals in Virginia that use Lexwell ECT machines against Mullen’s clientele list.”

“On it. Okay, Mullens wired some buildings at the Oakton Center back in the eighties. It's a former mental institution on 86 Acres. Two of the buildings are still in operation. The rest of the place is abandoned.”

“Thanks, baby girl,” Derek said, snapping his cell shut. Hotch nodded for them to leave and the four of them piled into a single SUV as Hotch knocked on the glass doors. Rossi dropped the file in his hand, heading to join his team.

The agents pulled up outside the dilapidated building. “God, this place looks worse than Arkham Asylum,” Piper joked, turning to Rossi, who surprisingly let out a chuckle. “Huh, thought that joke wouldn’t hold up.”

“Not sure it’s a time to be joking, Bishop,” Emily pointed out as the 6 federal agents started heading into the metal hospital. They split off into partnerships. Spencer and Aaron headed for the west side while Derek and Emily took the east. Piper and David plunged into the northern side, deep into the heart of the building. Together the doctor and the profiler inched through the shadows.

“This feels like a bad episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved,” she murmured, holding up her gun at eye level and Rossi shook his head. “Sorry, I complain when I raid abandoned mental asylums,” she confessed as they weaved through the building before stopping abruptly.

“What now?” She shushed him. “Did you just—”

“Shhh. Listen.” The sound of whimpers reverberated in the empty building.

“How’d you—"

“It’s coming from downstairs,” Piper whispered, starting to sprint for the staircase. “God, it’s like none of you ever watched Scooby-Doo!” Rossi shook his head before following as he called it in. Together, the duo took the stairs two at a time as silently as possible, the whimpers growing louder the lower she went.

“ _Is he hurting her?”_ Hotch’s voice filtered through the earwig.

“I don’t—”

“No,” Piper interrupted. “Not yet. The screams aren’t loud enough.” Rossi stopped, his gaze flicking to Piper, but she’d already moved ahead. Her gun was gripped tightly in her hands and she inched forward, Rossi only a few steps behind her. “Colby, put the knife down,” she demanded gently. “You don’t want to hurt her.” Piper held her gun up as she pushed the wire door open for Rossi to pass through. She heard Spencer and Hotch’s footsteps following her and made a show of holstering her gun. Colby still pressed the blade to the young blonde’s throat. “It’s okay. You don’t have to kill her.”

“This is not your fault, Colby,” Rossi said. “Your father got you into this.”

“No, no, no, you don’t know your father.”

“We know you’re losing him. I can imagine how painful that’s got to be,” Piper said, inching closer, her hands still up. “Killing her won’t bring him back.”

“He's getting better.”

“No. He isn't. And I know that scares you because you already lost your mother,” Rossi said slowly.

“Colby, I know what that feels like,” Piper said. “It feels like everything that is good in the world is gone, so you hold on to what you have left.”

“She left us!” he screamed.

“No, she didn’t,” Piper continued calmly. “She never left you, Colby. What would she say about this? You’ve got to make her proud, Colby, otherwise there’s no point.”

“You don’t want to hurt her, son,” Rossi pleaded and Colby seemed to waver before Piper lunged, wrapping a hand around his dominant hand and twisting it behind his back, wrenching the knife with her spare hand. Rossi heard it clatter to the ground as he tossed her a pair of handcuffs. She slipped them on him, murmuring an apology as she handed him over to Rossi. She pulled out a switchblade from her ankle, getting to work at the blonde’s bonds, grasping her as the woman lunged, sobbing into Piper’s shoulder. Instinctively, she pulled off her blazer, the only thing covering her scarred arms, and wrapping it around the young woman. While Rossi and Hotch secured Colby, Piper and Spencer helped the young woman to the ambulance before jumping into Derek’s SUV, begging him not to ‘vibe’ the way back to the precinct.

At the station, Spencer offered Piper his cardigan if she wanted to cover up her scars but after pausing a moment to look through a window, she refused. “My scars are my own. Whether I like it or not, they’re a part of me. I’m not going to hide that.” The lanky doctor smiled, wrapping the other doctor in a hug.

“I’m proud of you,” he murmured against her hair.

“Sorry, what was that?” Piper asked, a distinct gleam in her eye. He looked at the ceiling and took a deep breath.

“I’m proud of you, I’m proud of you, I’m proud of you—”

“Okay, got the memo,” Piper laughed and Spencer stopped with a gleaming smile. Piper glanced over her shoulder at Rossi shaking his hands with the detective. “What do you think he’s happier about; catching the Butcher or proving the detective wrong?”

“It’s Rossi,” Reid reasoned. “Obviously proving the detective wrong.” Piper chuckled wryly and Spencer caught the sight of Derek packing up in the other room with Emily. “You think he’s okay?”

“Who, Derek?” Piper followed his gaze, flicking a stray strand from her eyes. “You think he’s actually going to adopt Ellie?”

“No, but…” Spencer sighed. “He’s never been this attached to a victim before.”

“She’s not a victim, Spence.” Piper shrugged. “Ellie’s a survivor. And survivors have to latch onto an anchor. Ellie’s anchor is Morgan. He keeps her grounded.”

“Your brilliant metaphor has a flaw, Dr Bishop,” Spencer pointed out, causing Piper to glance back into his amber eyes. “If you hold onto an anchor, you’ll drown.”

“That’s not a flaw,” she said seriously, slipping her hand into his. “It’s their reality.”

Inside, Emily looked up at Derek as he slung his duffel over his shoulder. His phone was buzzing again. “Oh, please don't tell me that's Ellie again.”

“She just wants me to say good night.” Emily sighed, gathering up the last of her files. “Trust me, Prentiss, I get it. But I'm the first person she wants to speak to in the morning. She won't go to bed unless she talks to me at night. The girl's got PTSD. She's gotta vent to someone.”

“A professional,” Emily said, keeping her voice soothing and Derek nodded.

“Or someone who's been there,” Derek added before backing out, leaving Emily alone with her thoughts.

That evening, Rossi sat alone in his study, his unwritten chapter waiting to come to life. Unlike the nights before, the words came to him, fully formed at the tips of his fingers as the seasoned profiler put the Butcher to bed for good.


End file.
